Mets owner Steve Cohen is going to be a major headache for Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner this offseason
Mets' Steve Cohen and Yankees' Hal Steinbrenner will be on each other's radar this offseason. Credit: Jim McIsaac; Newsday/J Conrad Williams
In 2019, minutes after his Astros lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Nationals, Gerrit Cole appeared in the crushed Houston clubhouse wearing a cap with a Boras Corporation logo, still the most brazen free-agent signaling we can remember.
Juan Soto didn’t go that route when he finally met with reporters at 12:57 a.m. early Halloween morning, long after the clock had struck midnight on the Yankees’ season — otherwise known as his rental year in the Bronx. When the TV cameras turned on, Soto’s Yankees’ cap still was on his head but flipped backwards, so only the MLB logo was seen from the front. A different kind of signaling, perhaps?
“I don’t know what teams want to come after me,” Soto said. “But definitely I’ll be open to this and every single team. I don’t have any doors closed or anything like that. I’m going to be available for all 30 teams.”
Available? Sure. Feasible? No. If Scott Boras can get 10 clubs seriously involved at the price he’s thinking, that would be a major coup. A realistic figure is half that, based on how teams are spending lately during the offseason, especially with Soto — who just turned 26 — looking to capitalize on his rare combination of youth and “generational talent” for his first shot at free agency.
Soto kept the Boras merchandise tucked away in what would be his locker for only another day, the spot alongside the Yankees’ $360 million captain, Aaron Judge, and their $325 million DH, Giancarlo Stanton.
It’s fair to say that Soto is seeking double the money Judge got from the Yankees two years ago, when Hal Steinbrenner handed him a record annual salary for an outfielder: $40 million through the 2031 season. Or what Shohei Ohtani received last winter from the Dodgers, who gave the Japanese two-way star a $700 million deal at $70 million per season, but with so much deferred cash that the world champs are paying him only $2 million annually over the 10-year life of the contract.
Getting Soto even close to Ohtani money is going to be the challenge of Boras’ long-time agent career, and we’re talking about someone who is a master at extracting millions from billionaire team owners (Boras does his business with the guys who actually write the checks, not middle management).
Boras had a rough go of it last winter — by his standards, anyway — as his top clients wound up signing late and took short-term deals with opt-outs, giving them the chance to enter free agency again this offseason (Blake Snell, for example).
But this time around, it’s shaping up to be another Winter of Boras, reminiscent of the 2019-20 class, when he had Cole ($324M), Stephen Strasburg ($245M) and Anthony Rendon ($245M). Out of that crew, only Cole has delivered; the other two deals were disasters for the Nationals and Angels, respectively.
This offseason, Boras again has cornered the market on top free agents. Soto leads the way, but he’s followed by Snell, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Sean Manaea, to name a few.
Remember what we mentioned about that Boras-Owner dynamic? It’s going to be a big factor for Soto, along with Burnes and some of the other trickle-down players on that list. That’s worth noting when you consider Boras has become BFFs with the Mets’ Steve Cohen, who also happens to be baseball’s richest owner, with Forbes putting his personal wealth at $21.3 billion.
Boras, who has front-row seats behind the backstop at Dodger Stadium, often was seen chatting at length with Cohen before the NLCS games there — and those were just the conversations in public view. It’s rare that team owners spend that much time on the field while batting practice is going on, but Cohen seems to enjoy it, and there’s no question the owner had a blast during the Mets’ unexpected romp through October.
Which brings up two points. This postseason run really appeared to whet Cohen’s playoff appetite — nothing like the brief, disappointing wild-card cameo in 2022. And with roughly $180 million in payroll coming off the Mets' books this winter, you can easily envision Cohen being in the mood to spend it, especially after his team fell only two wins short of the World Series this October. Sort of the perfect storm for Boras, a rainmaker extraordinaire who should line up perfectly with Cohen’s agenda.
From a Yankees perspective, that’s trouble, particularly when it comes to their hope of retaining Soto. Cohen stayed out of the bidding for Judge two years ago when he easily could have made a play for the homegrown slugger — and annoyed Hal Steinbrenner — but that obviously won’t be the case with Soto. Not only that, but Boras could orchestrate a situation in which Soto lands in Flushing and the Yankees pivot to Alonso for their vacancy at first base. Or vice versa, depending on the offers.
Either way, Cohen is going to be a headache for Steinbrenner, one the Yankees’ owner didn’t really have to worry about all that much until now. Not only do the Mets have plenty of cash, but they’re coming off their first NLCS appearance since 2015, and the owner is eager to finish the job as soon as possible. Factor in the Yankees’ sting from a painful World Series defeat, and the Boras-Soto team is sitting pretty this offseason.
“Leaving any place that is a winning team is always hard,” Soto said while standing in the middle of the Yankees’ clubhouse for what could have been the final time. “This place was really special. It’s been a blast for me. I’ve been really happy. This was a really special group, but at the end of the day, we’ll see what happens.”
At least Soto didn’t put on the Boras cap.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.